Actually, I would have liked to start these percentages a whole lot earlier! I was in my early 40s when I started investing, and now I am 50. The pension plan is pretty good, but the state legislature keeps on trying to cut back on the benefits, so I have to invest as much as I can now.

Mark,

Congratulations on taking the bull by the horns! One of my pet peeves is people who work in a job that has potential for pension (like gov't jobs, teaching, etc) that will complain about the fact that the pensions look like they might be cut in the future, but they won't take steps to save up on their own!